THIS MONTH:

Trail Guiding for the California 4-Wheel Drive Association’s inaugural Death Valley Experience 2021 fundraiser event running from March 10-14, 2021. Each day will feature a choice of runs to some famous, some infamous and some secretive points of interest within Death Valley National Park. The runs will depart from Furnace Creek and from Stovepipe Wells. Some of the points of interest we will visit during Death Valley Experience 2021 include Zabriskie Point (famous), Barker Ranch (infamous) and the Racetrack (learn the secret of the moving rocks). Other points of interest include Dante’s View, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Artists’ Drive, Chloride Cliffs, Aguereberry Point, Skidoo, Titus Canyon, and Darwin Falls. All of the trail runs are suitable for novice drivers and SUVs with high clearance and 4-wheel drive…

COMING UP SOON:

Joining in on a Ladies Offroad Network camping adventure in Arizona: Five days of fun learning out on the trail and in camp with Charlene Bower and a small group of adventure-minded ladies. The event consists of three core days of trail runs and training, and two days with additional optional activities designed around the event theme…

Every Day Is a Clean Up Day in 2021. Ladies Offroad Network has partnered with TreadLightly! to create a year-long program that encourages members to pick up trash on the trails whenever they are out off-roading. Participants simply pick up the trash, weigh it, take a photo, and log the location and time it took, then upload the details. At the end of the year there will be a series of prizes based on pounds of trash removed from the trails as well as participation in other TreadLightly! initiatives. This is a great way to do some good on a local level and make a larger impact via the national program…

Looking ahead to a return to Paris as soon as possible to reconnect with friends and some favorite places in the city of light. Timing is still uncertain due to the pandemic, but we hope the trip is back on the calendar for early 2021…

TABLE MESA

The Table Mesa trails lie just north of Phoenix metro near the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains. This area started to be known as a rockcrawling destination in the late 1990s, and it remains popular to this day. Like many rockcrawling places in the Sonoran Desert, trails consist largely of sandy washes with boulders and waterfall ledges. Some years back, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) created a public use plan for this area, dividing portions up for use by off-roaders, mountain bikers, hikers, and target shooters. Now, there are a handful of legal trails in the area designated by BLM as Technical Vehicle trails. These trails are marked with a special prefix “TV,” which stands for “Technical Vehicle.” One of the more popular technical trails is “Terminator”, which has two parts, lower TV-2 and upper TV-3. These trails are typically run one way and the Table Mesa area is well marked. The trails are difficult through a narrow, rocky wash with tight turns and huge obstacles. Winch, lockers, and 35″ tires are recommended. Experienced drivers only…

SEDONA, ARIZONA

Number one on USA Weekend’s “Most Beautiful Places in America list,” Sedona, AZ is surrounded by 1.8 million acres of national forest land, with great jeep trails that wind in and out of a rugged landscape defined by pinnacles, spires, buttes and domes. Sedona’s main attraction is its array of red sandstone formations. The formations appear to glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun. The red rocks form a popular backdrop for many activities, ranging from spiritual pursuits to the hundreds of hiking and mountain biking trails. Sedona’s red rocks are formed by a unique layer of rock known as the Schnebly Hill Formation. The Schnebly Hill Formation is a thick layer of red to orange-colored sandstone found only in the Sedona vicinity. The sandstone, a member of the Supai Group, was deposited during the Permian Period. The early settlers were farmers and ranchers. John J. Thompson, who moved to Oak Creek Canyon in 1876 is considered the area’s first Anglo settler. In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were 55 residents. In the mid-1950s, the first telephone directory listed 155 names. Some parts of the Sedona area were not electrified until the 1960s. Sedona began to develop as a tourist destination, vacation-home and retirement center in the 1950s. Most of the development seen today was constructed in the 1980s and 1990s. As of 2007, there were no large tracts of undeveloped land remaining. Sedona has played host to more than sixty Hollywood productions from the first years of movies into the 1970s. Stretching as far back as 1923, Sedona’s red rocks were a fixture in major Hollywood productions—including films such as “Angel and the Badman,” “Desert Fury,” “Blood on the Moon,” “Johnny Guitar,” “The Last Wagon,” and “3:10 to Yuma”…

HIKING AROUND SEDONA

Sedona’s Red Rocks create a paradise for scenic hikes all around the area. With so many options it can be hard to choose a trail and many visitors default to the most popular onces, which can lead to crowded stretches and a decidedly “un-wilderness” experience. Here are a couple of links to some list of less-crowded, shorter hikes from different sources: 8 Beautiful Hikes without the Crowds, 6 Easy Sedona Hikes with Fabulous Views, Best easy hikes in Sedona…

Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade | Akron | St. Louis | Clinton | Grants | Yuma | Borrego Springs | Laughlin | Baker | Barstow | Ridgecrest | Lone Pine | Death Valley | Beatty | Sedona | Phoenix

MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
22-28 Februay – Alabama Hills
15-21 Februay – Mojave Road
8-14 Februay – Death Valley
1-7 Februay – Glamis
15-31 January – Roadtrip Southwest
1-14 January – Long Island
22-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
15-21 December – Holiday Roadtrip
7-14 December – Holiday Roadtrip
1-6 December – Long Island
15-30 November – Long Island
1-14 November – Long Island
28-31 October – Roadtrip East
22-27 October – Moab
15-21 October – Moab
8-14 October – Moab
1-7 October – Roadtrip West
16-30 September – Roadtrip West
1-15 September – Long Island
16-31 August – Long Island
1-15 August – Summer Roadtrip
22-31 July – Summer Roadtrip
14-21 July – Summer Roadtrip
1-13 July – Long Island
16-30 June – Long Island
1-15 June – Bald Eagle
16-31 May – Central PA
1-15 May – Re-opening Trails
April – Lockdown NY
16-31 March – Lockdown NY
9-15 March – Roadtrip Home
1-8 March – Moab
Archive

EVENTS

LADIES OFFROAD NETWORK NONCON 2020

Recap from the Ladies Offroad Network camping and wheeling event, dubbed the “NonCon” as in “not the convention,” that came together after the official convention was cancelled due to the pandemic… [read]

RE-OPENING

RE-OPENING OUR OUTDOORS

Report from the first trail run with the Off Road Consulting group at Rausch Creek Off Road Park as the post-pandemic phased re-openings begin in Pennsylvania and some of our favorite local trails re-open to the public after the two-month shutdown… [read]

SPECIAL REPORT

ALGERIA SCOUTING

A look into south-eastern Algeria on the border with Libya and Niger: overlanding with the Tuareg in one of the most remote corners of the Sahara … [read]